Somewhere to put all those toys (Pintoy Wooden Natural Toy Chest)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Pintoy Wooden Natural Toy Chest
Date:	14/05/09 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality item

Disadvantages: probably you could fill more than one!

In my experience there is a stage at some point after children come into your life, for the sake of argument let's call it the denial stage, where you are convinced you will restrict all toys to one small and tastefully hidden basket in the corner of the living room. Reality, birthdays and over generous grannies seem to lead to the inevitable search for more suitable and cavernous storage, which in our case lead to the purchase of this John Crane Pintoy item from John Lewis.

This is a solid wood item, of 64 x 40 x 37.5 cm. The main panels are made of rubberwood, as you can see from the picture it is brightly painted on 4 sides with a red mouse, green frog, yellow bear and blue cat. The coloured panels are painted and the rest of the chest is finished in varnish. Whether the style appeals will be down to personal taste but the box is, in my opinion, suited to boys and girls. There is a matching table and chair set available should you wish to furnish a child's corner or playroom and these can also be viewed in most John Lewis stores on online at www.pintoys.com.

The box came flat packed, and was relatively easy to assemble although the hinge was quite difficult to screw into place, all fairly straightforward. The hinge is a good feature as it prevents the lid from slamming down on little fingers when your children are preparing to get toys out with the purpose of scattering them all over your house.

Like all John Crane wooden items this is a very durable box, and is of good quality with nice thick wood. It is quite heavy to carry, but does have carry handles on each side if you wish to move it from one room to another.

We have owned our chest for over 4 years now and it has variously stored baby toys, duplo and currently quite an extensive collection of Happyland toys. The chest does hold quite a lot of toys and is a good storage solution, and place for small people to sit mid play. Bar a few dints it has worn well and is to all purposes as good as new.

I would recommend this item which is currently available from John Lewis at £53.50, though you may be able to find it cheaper online, eg at www.littlefishtoys.co.uk.. It won't mean you don't accumulate more toys, but it might help you contain those your children already have!

Summary: a nice traditional toy chest